A Town Called Mercy
by Web of Obsidian
Summary: **Spoilers for A Town Called Mercy** The conversation between the Doctor and Kahler-Jex takes a different turn. "Tell me, Kahler-Jex," he whispered softly, his low tone more dangerous and deadly than any shout could possibly ever be. "What do you know of the Time Lords? The Last Great Time War?"


**I kept thinking about the Doctor and the Time War when the Doctor slipped into Time Lord Victorious/Oncoming Storm mode in the recent episode. Hence, this.**

* * *

"He's lying," the Doctor said, stepping into the room, cold fury burning in his eyes. "Every word, everything he says... It's. All. _Lies_. This man is a murderer."

"I am a scientist!" Jex protested.

"Sit down," the Doctor ordered, but the other alien remained defiantly standing. His temper flared. "Sit down!" He sat. "Tell them what you are." Jex glared.

"What am I? A war hero."

"Okay, somebody want to tell me what's going on?" Isaac asked, closer to a demand then a question.

"The Gunslinger is a cyborg," the Doctor said grimly.

"A what?"

"Half man, half machine. A weapon. _Jex_ built it. He and his team took volunteers, told them they'd been selected for "special training", then experimented on them. Fused their bodies with weaponry and programmed them to kill."

"Okay," Isaac said slowly, then turned to Jex. "Why? Why would you do that, Doc?"

"We'd been at war for nine years. A war that had already decimated half of our planet. Our task was to bring peace, and we did. We built an army that routed the enemy and ended the war in less than a week. Do you want me to repent, to beg forgiveness for saving millions of lives?"

"And how many died screaming on the operating table before you had found your advantage?"

"War is another world," Jex countered. "You cannot apply the polotics of peace to what I did. To what any of us did."

"What happened then?" Rory questioned, seeing that the Doctor was too furious to even speak. "How come you're here?"

"When the war ended we had the Cyborgs decommissioned, but one of them must have got its circuitry damaged in battle. It went offline and began hunting down the team that created it until just two of us were left. We fled, and our ships crashed here."

"So what do we do with Jex?" Rory asked.

"What do we do with him?" Isaac was confused.

"Yeah. I mean, he's a war criminal."

"No, he's the guy that saved the town from cholera, the guy that gave us heat and light."

"Look," Amy started. "Jex may be a criminal, and yeah, kinda creepy-"

"And still in the room," he muttered.

"-but I think we should put aside what he did and find another solution."

"Another solution?" Rory said incredulously. "It's him or us!"

"When did we start letting people get exectued? Did I miss a memo?" She turned to the Doctor. "Doctor, tell him."

The Time Lord blinked a couple of times and looked up from where he was standing.

"Hmm? Yes. I don't know. ...Whatever Amy said."

"Looking at you, Doctor, is like looking into a mirror, almost," Jex mused, tilting his head to one side. "There's rage there, like me. Guilt, like me. Solitude. Everything but the _nerve_ to do what needs to be done. Thank the gods that they weren't depending on you-"

Amy, Rory, and Isaac had taken several steps backwards as the Doctor's face grew progressively darker.

"Tell me, Kahler-Jex," he whispered softly, his low tone more dangerous and deadly than any shout could possibly ever be. "What do you know of the Time Lords? The Last Great Time War?" Jex floundered for a moment, surprised at the abrupt turn in conversation, before starting to speak.

"Well, I – I don't know much," he stammered. "There were rumors of a war, between the ancient and noble race of Time Lords and the Dalek Empire. But the Time Lords weren't prepared to fight, because they never ever interfered and they just disappeared. Gone. The Daleks faded into mere whispers, and lesser species were just completely unaware that the two even existed." The Doctor nodded, a cruel smile growing on his face.

"One man did that, Kahler-Jex," he said. "Just one man. He committed dual genocide, wiped out the Daleks and the Time Lords. He destroyed his home, his planet, his people, and then he was the only survivor. Let me tell you a story, Kahler-Jex," he said, starting to pace. "A legend, if you will, from the Dalek homeworld of Skaro."

Amy frowned.

_It was a bad day. Bad stuff happened._

"Many years ago in the time of our ancestors," he began, oblivious to his companion's growing discomfort, "there was Davros, our Creator. He made Daleks pure and sent them out to form the Great and Bountiful Dalek Empire which would last for centuries.

"But there is a Storm, and he will work to destroy the Empire for his own means. He is hatred and fire and rage and he burns in the blood of millions at the center of time itself. When the Oncoming Storm comes, he leaves nothing but blood and chaos and destruction in his wake. The Storm must be destroyed and the Dalek Empire _will._ _Reign._ _Supreme!_" His voice grew progressively louder and his pacing faster as he spoke, and when he got to the end of his sentence he abruptly turned and faced Jex.

"The one thing the Daleks were afraid of," he said, the volume of his voice going back to the soft, dangerous tone. "The Oncoming Storm. He was a Time Lord, just one man, but he was a soldier. Dalek armies fled from him. He led troops into battle and the enemy turned and ran at the mention of his name. He sent the Crucible through the Gates of Oblivion, single-handedly fought off the Emperor's ship from the Citadel, and ended the war in the space of seconds. Do you want to know his name?"

The Doctor leaned in very close to whisper in his ear.

"Hello. I'm the Doctor."

Jex swallowed nervously, wiping his palms on his legs.

"Don't talk to me about doing what needs to be done, Kahler-Jex, because I have done far more than you ever could. Now _**get out**_!"


End file.
